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Welcome to the website of Karen Marie Garrett
Pianist and Composer
"Hello, I'm Karen Marie Garrett. I look forward to sharing my music with you.
Music is an international language.
I love connecting with people and exploring that
musically. It's about the people and music,
and not about fitting into any one drawer."
Influences: CLASSICAL - Beethoven, Chopin, Satie,
Mozart, Pachelbel, Schubert
CONTEMPORARY - Beatles, Elton John, Billy Joel, Ray Charles,
Will Ackerman, Enya, and more…
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Autographed CDs usually ship next business day - available only at www.kgpiano.com and www.waterstreetrecords.com
CDs also available at Amazon, CDBaby and digital downloads at iTunes + (type "Karen Marie Garrett" in search )
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It's About the Rose
#1 CD of the Year - Top New Age and Contemporary Instrumental Airplay Recording of 2007
Out of 2,950 recordings submitted to New Age Reporter in 2007, "It's About the Rose" was the only cd/album to
chart #1 three consecutive months and hold a slot in the charts for 10 months.
2007 NAR LifeStyle Music Awards "Best Instrumental Piano Album"
"2007 Gold Award" - Piano Heaven, United Kingdom
Songs: Tally's Lullaby, It's About the Rose in the Vase on the Table, Vinot and the Seabird,
The Piano Called, Moon Night, Waiting, Beethoven, Chopin and the Rose, Impressions,
Tip Toe Dancer and the Sea Pearl, Café Espresso, Daydreams, Finale of the Rose.
Will Ackerman, gold and platinum record producer and founder Windham Hill Records. "Karen Marie Garrett’s previous recording, Allure of Sanctuary , offered an abundance of melody and emotion, making it truly remarkable. Her latest recording, It’s About the Rose, presents an absolutely stunning evolution in musical styles, textures, virtuosity and emotional depth. She has not departed from what worked so well for her in Allure of Sanctuary, but has simply dug deeper to create an even richer experience.”
Bill Binkelman; New Age Reporter This is one of the most beautiful piano recordings I’ve heard in recent memory, and even maybe longer. . The closing “Finale of the Rose” reminded me of the superlative soundtrack to the film The Fountain (music by Clint Mansell and played by the Kronos Quartet), with its near funereal mood yet still so beautiful as to almost break one’s heart. I highly recommend It's About the Rose" especially for quieter times when you bask in its sepia-toned glow.
Kathy Parsons, New York Solo Piano Publications It’s About the Rose is ... stunning! Her previous release, The Allure of Sanctuary, was also exceptional with its melodic emotional depth, but this is quite different. The pieces tend to be more improvised and come directly from the soul without a confining structure. Artists of this stature are able to freely, yet cohesively communicate their musical thoughts, creating moods and wordless dialogs with their instruments. True artistry springs from this place, and if you have ever witnessed it, the experience is profound and mesmerizing.
Garrett obviously took some major musical risks with this new release, but calls the time spent making the album the most creative period of her life - it shows. I don’t often listen to a CD for the first time and keep saying, “Wow!” but that’s what happened here. It’s not the pianistic flash, but the depth of feeling and personal expression that draws you in and won’t let go.... May she always wear her heart on her musical sleeve! Wow!
Jazz Review.com, review by Tom Schaefer I have to admit that I approached Karen Marie Garrett’s CD It’s About the Rose with some trepidation. I am not a greater lover of the New Age music genre. Also the prospect of a theme CD centered on the beauty of the rose caused some additional foreboding. But I had my prejudices quickly removed by this absolutely enchanting effort.
When people think of emotional music, they generally picture a Beethoven symphony or Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, but emotion can be subtle and nuanced without the use cymbals or timpani.
It’s About the Rose reminds me very much of Erik Satie, in fact. Both Satie and Garrett have a minimalist style of piano composition. The easy, almost ambling manner of the music belies the deep emotions that are being conveyed. Garrett displays an incredible virtuosity without the flourishes of a Chopin or Beethoven. Yet the subtlety of the music compels you and draws you into the emotions that Garrett is hoping to evoke. It’s About the Rose is seductively beautiful.
Review by Sari N. Kent, Celebrity Cafe, New York ..songs for movies... motion pictures... superb...
It’s About the Rose, by Karen Marie Garrett, debuted at #1 on the Top 100 Contemporary Instrumental and New Age Charts and with good reason. It has tunes that exhibit Garrett’s skill on the piano, mixed in which other powerful instruments that together will give listeners an experience they will not soon forget.
Review by Cherie Lassiter, Innerchange - A Transformative Resource For Higher Consciousness. Timeless beauty describes the rose and also Karen Marie Garrett's latest masterpiece, "It’s About the Rose".... The rose is a gift of nature. "It’s About the Rose" is a gift from the heart and hands of Karen Marie Garrett, and we are blessed.
John Iverson, Shades of Classics, CKUW 95.9 FM Winnipeg, Canada Beautiful as a Rose! I had not heard the music of pianist Karen Marie Garrett prior to reviewing this album, but after giving it a listen, I wish I had known about her much sooner. It's About the Rose is absolutely gorgeous, full of beautiful melodies played with emotion and passion.
Stephen Cairns; Piano Heaven - England With It's About the Rose, Karen Marie Garrett shows continued artistic growth, revealing her creative qualities to the full, without losing that special gift for melody which makes her compositions so endearing to her ever-increasing legions of fans. A true gem of a CD….pure Piano Heaven.
New York acclaimed author Terry Wright wrote the beautiful poem ON HEARING “TALLY’S LULLABY (below) after hearing Karen's Tally’s Lullaby. The poem is scheduled to appear 2008 in his new book titled “Bone Soup” (Cemetery Dance)
ON HEARING “TALLY’S LULLABY” (by Karen Marie Garrett)
My grandmother told me, once,
when her two yellow Labs and the little guy she called “Muttley”
were gathered near, at her cottage by the lake,
"No life is lived well without a dog.”
And she smiled in the way that grandmothers sometimes smile—
as if the simple realities of this existence aren’t for the foolish or self-concerned—
and added, “And that’s as true as yesterday.
Then she reached out and touched her yellow Labs, and the little dog she called “Muttley,”
and they smiled, too.
*****
She found her way into her second century before she passed.
It was a long, slow process, her passing, quiet, and without much pain, she said,
though I didn’t believe her.
Her daughters and sons, and a sister who lived with her
allowed no dogs, in her small room, in the cottage by the lake,
so the dogs stood quietly in her yard, or just beyond her door,
and mourned her in the way dogs mourn--
earnestly, but without the need for regret, because they are not us.
*****
She sat with me last night, and said, “Tell me about this music you love, Terry.”
And I said, “Nana”—which is what I call her--
“It’s about a dog named Tally. It’s about her death.”
And Nana hesitated, then said, in a grandmotherly rebuke,
“Music is never about death.”
And I nodded and said, “Yes, I know.”
And she said, “It’s about the other. Music is always about the other.”
And I nodded again, and smiled a little, Karen,
as if she were actually there,
and I said very softly, because your music was playing,
and it filled my space with caressing reassurance,
“Yes, Nana,I know.”
___________________
--T.M. Wright
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Allure of Sanctuary
Top 20 Piano Album 2005 - Solo Piano Publications, New York
Top 10 on national airplay chart in just FIVE weeks
"2005 Gold Award" - Piano Heaven, United Kingdom
Songs: Tip Toe Dancer, Lake Ewok* Muse (piano/cello), Welcome B, Will's Song, Toll of War, Simple Things, Allure of Sanctuary, Green Hills, Gnossiennes 1 - 3, and Lake Ewok* Muse Reprise (piano solo)
Recorded at George Lucas' Skywalker Sound Studios. * Ewok is a trademark of Lucasfilm Ltd. and its affiliated companies, used by permission.
"Karen's music is passionate and evokes emotion. I really think the package is beautiful and will attract people to it, once they get inside they'll be goners." Will Ackerman, gold and platinum record producer and founder Windham Hill Records.
Tom Petersen; Victory Review Magazine; Acoustic Music Resource Karen Marie Garrett is a top-drawer pianist headed for bigger things. Allure of Sanctuary is the Olympia artist's third release, following a straight classical disc and another in this contempory vein. This new release is as soothing as it intended, but it's also energizing. Where a lot of New Age is so light it begins to drift and grow unidentifiable, Garrett’s compositions are distinct, with melodies for the listener to hook into. It is billed as New Age, but several cuts qualify as Light Jazz, very mellow Vince Guaraldi, perhaps. Thus, Garrett is a distinctive new artist in this field and could, with the right promotion, see herself at the top of the New Age charts (Allure is already getting significant airplay on Easy Listening stations). It won’t hurt a bit that she is a pupil of the founder of the New Age genre, Will Ackerman; nor do dead-enders get invited to record their albums at Skywalker ranch, us-ing Lucas's Bluthner grand! Get this album, neighbors - you can say you "knew her when."
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MUSIC FOR FILM,TELEVISON, VIDEO AND COMMISSIONED WORKS
Karen's music is available for film, television and video; she owns/has rights to quickly license music for your projects. CONTACT
Ms. Garrett is available for commissioned works and as music supervisor for your project. CONTACT
WORKSHOPS AND PIANO STUDY
School Workshops, Master Classes, and Personal Piano Study CONTACT
"Spread the Light of Hope"
Expressing the Inexpressible - The Powerful Essence of Music
Steve and Kerry Cantrell wake up every morning to Music Choice, the music wing of Comcast cable television. Music acts as their alarm clock set to a specific music channel. This is a peaceful, gentle way to wake up each morning as Steve prepares to go to work for Direct Insurance Company and Kerry for Bridgestone Americas Holding, Inc. One morning in May, Steve says, “Tally’s Lullaby was playing and I reached up to turn it off, but I couldn’t. I got up and listened to the song and couldn’t tear myself away from it.”
Tally’s Lullaby is a single from It’s About the Rose, an early blooming 2007 hit recording by solo pianist, Karen Marie Garrett from Washington State. It’s About the Rose has been a No.1 chart-topping album with radio stations across the country holding the number one slot for three consecutive months. It was instantly selected as one of the Top Twelve Adult Contemporary Recordings of the Year.
Industry kudos aside, the true success of this album lies in the people it has touched around the world.
The Cantrells of Nashville are the most recent part of the story. Steve says the morning he heard Tally’s Lullaby he immediately emailed Garrett. He went to iTunes and bought a download for his iPod just before he and his wife participated in the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life.
“Kerry is a breast cancer survivor, and participating any way we can in raising cancer awareness is a high priority,” Steve says. “The Luminaria is the highlight of the evening in Relay For Life events where candles are purchased and lit in memory of loved ones lost to this disease. After lighting the candles everyone walks a solemn lap in the glow of the fully lit Luminaria. While I was walking, I continued to hear “Tally’s Lullaby” in my mind. I decided I wanted to make a video of the Luminaria and set it to Tally’s Lullaby.”
Cantrell’s video was completed the first part of October just in time to help promote the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk http://www.cancer.org/stridesonline, Saturday October 20, at LP Field, the home of the Tennessee Titans football team.
Making Strides Against Breast Cancer is a noncompetitive walk to help fight breast cancer and provide hope to people facing the disease. Participation will support the American Cancer Society's lifesaving research, prevention, early detection, and support programs for thousands of patients and their families
Cantrell who turned 50 this month says his personal goal is to raise $10,000 for cancer research this year. For the first 100 donations of $50 or more, the donor will receive a copy of the video. Garrett says, “This video is a gift from the heart. It’s a handmade tribute to a cause that touches everyone. No one is immune to this devastating disease. I love the fact that Steve made such a big personal effort to do something; and by some measure, my music is helping people find constructive ways to move in positive directions. To view Steve’s moving video please go to myspace.com/karenmariegarrett.”
The lullaby Garrett co-wrote with Grammy Award-winning cellist, Eugene Friesen is in response to a letter from grieving family in Michigan. “I could not stop the tears pooling in my eyes and rolling down my cheeks, and went to the piano for comfort. The music poured from my heart to the keys and Tally’s Lullaby appeared as a gift in complete form - an amazing experience,” Garrett explains on a page of her website titled, the Story of Tally’s Lullaby.
This song has drawn response from all walks of life. The amount of email Garrett receives in response to the song is overwhelming, and sometimes takes days to answer.
Shortly after the Virginia Tech tragedy, Winter Robinson, an author, consultant, therapist, and intuitive, wrote to Garrett. The two women collaborated on a healing meditation for anyone seeking curative solace in the weeks and months following the heartbreaking event. Tally’s Lullaby served as the musical foundation beneath a spoken-word meditation by Robinson.
Acclaimed author T. M. Wright, heralded by Stephen King as “a rare and blazing talent,”wrote a poem in response to Garrett’s lullaby to be included in his new book Bone Soup (Cemetery Dance) which will be released later this year. In “On Hearing Tally’s Lullaby”, Wright’s spare, powerful prose touches on several themes that personify Garrett’s intent in this piece of music.
The essence of music and its powerful effect on individual people are often overlooked. That “Tally’s Lullaby” is making a vital impact on individuals and families worldwide is a strong statement that music has amazing healing powers and the ability to bring the world together simply by expressing the inexpressible.
View the video produced in Nashville to raise funds for cancer research, in conjunction with the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer campaign at
myspace.com/karenmariegarrett "Spread the Light of Hope"
Provided by Waterstreet Records and Publishing, Inc ® |
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